This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:5-7
As we lit the Advent candles at church this morning, I thought of the lighting of the Hanukkah candles now, too. What is significant about lighting candles? They are about light.
The Bible opens with the first day of creation where God created light and separated it from the darkness. The Psalmist wrote that God is light (Psalm 27:1) The writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls wrote about the “sons of light” and the “sons of darkness”. Jesus is called the light (John 1:4-5). Jesus taught that his followers are the light of the world and to let their lights shine (Matthew 5:14-16).
We live in a dark world, bent on extinguishing the light. We need to remember that our Light is stronger and will make everything right in time.